We have surpassed a milestone that is unfathomable.

By The Number

By the time you read this
the shimmer and shake of ancient light
from the Fornax Dwarf Galaxy
will have shimmied its ways across 
almost 500,000 light years,
a squiggle unseen that echoed the first doodle
a bored Homo Erectus (name and occupation unknown)
etched on a shell 
at around the same time
500,000 years ago.
That would place archaic him -- or archaic her, 
the doodling habits of Homo Erectus 
far beyond the knowledge of this poet--
squarely in the Pleistocene Epoch
of the Quaternary Period
of the Cenozoic Era,
       only slightly predating our current
Holocene Epoch,
       where we have seen
the invention of the wheel
and fire and saddles and stirrups
and aeroplanes and electric cars
and the departure and arrival of lunar modules
and the one-way journeys of 
       Cassini and Voyagers the First and Second
and Juno and New Horizons seeking same
but this digression has zigged too far.

500,000 hours is about 57 years
& 500,000 seconds is about 139 hours
& 500,000 is the TV screen snow plastered graphic
across the front page of the New York Times
& 500K air miles is enough to brag about rewards
       in your wallet
& $500,000 is a terrible NBA salary 
but suits the MLB, minimally
and 500,000 is half a million
and Half a Million is a song by The Shins
and of that half a million things you’re supposed to be
       dead is not one of them.

©David Siller – 2021

*****

For the first 100 days of the Biden administration, this website will feature a new poem of What’s Next!? These pieces can be calls to action, calls to attention, or calls to anger. They will light the way and guide the fight. They will get us moving and keep our momentum. They will be filled with hope, with anger, with sorrow. They will get us into good trouble and point out the trouble we need to stop. They will be polished gems, or rough-cut drafts of rage, or in-process pieces searching for peace. They may be haiku or tanka, limericks or lyrics, verses free or fettered.

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? wants your poems, your prose, your visual art (photos, drawings, sculptures), your music, your short films and animations. Interpret the theme as broadly as you’d like.

If you would like to submit to this endeavor, please send an email, with your visual art (as .jpg or .pdf) or your poem saved as a word document (.docx) to waxyandpoetic AT gmail DOT com. Include a short bio (2-3 sentences) and social media/website information. All rights remain with the author. Please address any formatting preferences in your email. Waxyandpoetic.com will post submissions time permitting, with at least one per day beginning 20 January 2021.

Read, follow, share, submit, live, love, spread light! Don’t forget to use #100Days100Poems !